Tag Archives: Adtech

Does Targeted Advertising Work?

We know from Betteridge’s Law that the answer must be no. Elaine Moore writing for The Finanical Times comes to the same conclusion and says that there’s plenty of evidence that the whole thing is a scam and that targeted … Continue reading

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Tracking Pixels

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, taking a break from criticizing the president who is not the president (it’s a Zen thing), has an excellent rant on the abomination that is email tracking pixels. As most Irreal readers surely know, tracking pixels … Continue reading

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Adtech Fraud at Uber

As most of you know to your sorrow, I really, really hate adtech and frequently rail against it. The harm they do to ordinary users like you and me is manifest. They invade our privacy, follow us around the Internet, … Continue reading

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The Costs of Mobile Data

I just came across some information that’s not actionable and therefore doesn’t really matter but it is interesting. Cable.co.uk has a fascinating page that describes the cost of mobile data in 228 countries. For each country, they show the cheapest, … Continue reading

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Wanted: The World’s Smallest Violin

The crybabies making up a Google-backed group of European advertisers are very upset that Apple will shortly require apps to notify users that they intend to track them and ask their permission first. As Yoda might say, “The schadenfreude is … Continue reading

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Surprise! Online Advertisers Are Breaking The Law

According to a report by Forbrukerradet—which I think is the Norwegian Consumer Council—online advertisers are ignoring the GDPR and continuing to track consumers and build profiles of them. The report, linked above, and the technical addendum are both quite long … Continue reading

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Just in Case You Still Thought “Google Is Your Friend”

Many years ago, when someone would ask some easily discoverable question, I would respond with “Google is your friend.” I haven’t said that for a long time now because Google most emphatically is not your friend. If you think that’s … Continue reading

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Does Behavioral Advertising Even Work?

Techcrunch has published an excellent article that explores the case against adtech. It’s remarkably fair and balanced but concludes that the case against behavioral advertising is stacking up. One of their key pieces of evidence is that the New York … Continue reading

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More Trouble for Adtech

If you’re like me and really, really hate Adtech and those who push it, I have some good news. After the GDPR went into effect, advertisers had to have your explicit, informed, and affirmative consent to collect personal information about … Continue reading

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Adtech Prepares for a Big Hit

A series of complaints targeting user information gatherers, data brokers, and third party users of that information could portend a tsunami bearing down on the adtech industry. In what could be the first test of whether GDPR enforcement is going … Continue reading

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